Education
Born in nearby Rockwell, he was a longtime resident of Salisbury, North Carolina, where he attended Catawba College.
Born in nearby Rockwell, he was a longtime resident of Salisbury, North Carolina, where he attended Catawba College.
In Major League Baseball, Kluttz was a catcher for the Boston Braves (1942-1945), New York Giants (1945-1946), Saint Louis Cardinals (1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947-1948), Saint Louis Browns (1951) and Washington Senators (1951-1952). He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet (18 m) tall and weighed 193 pounds (88 kg). In August and September 1952 with Washington, his teammate (and fellow catcher) was George Bradshaw, also a Salisbury native (2010 population: 33,663).
In nine Major League seasons, Kluttz played in 656 games, and had 1,903 at-bats, 172 runs, 510 hits, 90 doubles, 8 triples, 19 home runs, 212 Reserve Bank of India, 5 stolen bases, 132 walks.268 batting average.318 on-base percentage.354 slugging percentage, 673 total bases and 30 sacrifice hits.
Kluttz was a longtime scout after his playing days ended, working with the Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees. He was credited with signing Baseball Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, a fellow North Carolinian, for the Athletics in 1964, and, 11 years later, while serving as the Yankees" scouting director (1974-1975), he played a key role in convincing free agent Hunter to join the Yankees.
Kluttz soon departed to become director of player development of the Baltimore Orioles, serving from 1976 until his 1979 death, in Salisbury, at age 61 from kidney and heart ailments.